The Press, the bombshell and the spin....

What happened??

The news of the week centered around the press conference where Rumsfeld was asked about the failing armor on our fighting vehicles.. Rumsfeld stammered, and otherwise came up with some bizarre quotes:

"As you know, you go to war with the army you have,
not the army you might want or wish to have at a later
time..."

Ouch..

"The goal we have is to have as many of those vehicles
as is humanly possible with the appropriate level of
armor appropriate for the troops."

Well that's lovely considering we're over 2 YEARS into this conflict.....

*sighs*

But the focus has shifted from the issue to the circumstances surrounding the reporter that apparently coached the Reservist to ask Rumsfeld the question to begin with....

Whoa.. Wait a second.. Recognize the ploy?? Steer away from the issue, blame others, focus on something else.. Don't remember, don't recognize this??

-Abu Ghraib prison scandal: allegations that the white house knew only to be shifted that Saddam treated his own people worse...

-The Lack of WMD found in Iraq: but we were really there to free the Iraqi people from a madman...

-We will find Osama Bin Laden: now he's no concern..

-Bush condemns a 9/11 investigation because it would compromise national security: now we're overhauling the system......

Spin .... is such a lovely thing..

But when the embedded reporter coaches a soldier on how to raise a seemingly legitimate concern about how some of the vehicles in Iraq are not properly equipped -- the Spin works again ... this time it was all the ploy of a reporter who obviously has disdain against this administration..

Or what about this possible spin: the major press doesn't want to report on things that may sever the ties and access within certain facets of the administration..

Or what about this one: the major news networks are otherwise owned by heavily weighted conservative corporations which would conflict with their agenda..

Or this one: the press is afraid of Karl Rove and what it may mean to them in the long run...

Basically it comes down to that the press has become a "do-gooder" for this administration.. That whatever fear of God got instilled with the powers that be - has made every paper, every news organization -- think twice before posting anything that would remotely be considered hostile or controversial with the government..

So why??

Why does the media do a full-court press on the love affair of Clinton, but loft softball pitches to a Bush Administration that has continues to run a policy that leaves us as a nation - exposed..

Was there some sort of agreement made with the media and the administration?? Was there a backdoor policy made as a result of 9/11 and the Patriot Act??

I keep wondering if there is *something* out there that is much bigger and invisible to the American people.. I state that based on the fact that the press has changed significantly since 9/11.. The tough questions that have been the focal point of every administration for at least the last 40 years has been hushed.. The accountability, the deeper insight, a more rational basis of what actually happened has been replaced with some distorted/biased view of the world..

Conservative pundits report that the playing field is being evened out.. That there is an equality with news organizations like Fox, Limbaugh and Hannity because they are filling out the other part of the equation.. I get that.. I support that in a way because everyone should be entitled to an opinion.. However.. Those lines have been skewed so severely between opinion and news - they are now interchangeable..

Instead of reporting a story - they are commenting the story.. There is a concerted effort to report *some* facts and not others.. There's a concerted effort to report *some* stories and not others.. The creedo "fair and balanced" should not be weighed when reporting a story.. What happened to "true, unbiased and reporting thoroughly??"

Why is it that the focus is on the reporter - who knew the only way to report the story was to have it come from a soldier themselves?? Why is it that the "stinger" question is being focused on, yet the armor issue has been set aside?? Why is it that this is something that has been reported before - several times in fact - and gone relatively unnoticed by the major networks and press organizations -- that is until a soldier stood up and asked the question that no member of the press dared to..

Why??

What happened??